The present invention addresses several recent problems arising from the advent of sexually explicit or excessively graphic or violent material being made freely available to minors through various unregulated media such as videocassette rentals, broadcast and cablecast television, radio broadcasts, widely distributed laser disc programs, video games, phonograph albums and audio cassette tapes, optical films and various computer text databases.
Heretofore, there have not been many restrictions imposed on the purveyors of such program material, although some parents and governmental officials have expressed strong interest in controlling its availability or at least preventing minors from freely receiving it. Because overburdensome government regulation or censorship of the providers of explicit program material is limited by the First Amendment and interferes with the legitimate desires of adults who wish to receive such material, there is a strong need to provide a means for selectively screening out or preventing replay of unwanted program material when the replay device (i.e., television, videocassette player, high fidelity audio equipment, movie projector, computer) is operated by a child or other unauthorized person, or when the explicit program material is replayed for broadcast via radio, broadcast or cable television, telephone transmission, or the like, to an unsuspecting audience.
In the realm of explicit or violent program material, several solutions have been proposed to restrict distribution of certain types of program material. These include labelling exterior packages with content warnings, segregating explicit program material from less objectionable material within a retail outlet, and the adoption of policies providing that only adults can rent or purchase certain program material. However, such policy measures are easily circumvented and fail to reliably impose the desired restrictions on the distribution of the objectionable material. For example, exterior package warnings, (e.g., notices on phonograph album jackets warning of explicit musical lyrics) have no effect in preventing distribution of forbidden material to a child unless the forbidding parent or guardian is present at the point of sale. Likewise, the effectiveness of segregating program material (e.g., a separate "adult" video section of a videocassette rental outlet) and adopting a store policy of refusing sale to minors is undermined by subterfuge, and whereas many vendors will readily adopt a store policy, very few are willing to take the responsibility to guarantee that the policy is in all cases carried out.
The present invention provides a means for directly screening program material recorded on various types of storage media and permits regulation of the unauthorized replay of the stored program material. The invention thus provides a means of regulating the playback of a program from storage media, even where the distribution of the storage media cannot be effectively controlled.
The invention combines the advantages of requiring minimum effort and expense on the part of those who produce, record or distribute, broadcast or otherwise transmit a given program and minimum effort on the part of the potential receiver who wishes to restrict access to the program material, while requiring no additional effort on the part of legitimate customers who wish to freely receive such program material. The device of this invention can be implemented on all types of program material playback equipment, including but not limited to televisions, radios, videotape recorders, phonographs, audio tape recorders, laser disc players, motion picture projectors, computers, etc.